General elections in Poland:
‘Poles wanted change, and a big one, for that matter’

The Polish press hails the unprecedented landslide victory of right-wing PiS on Sunday’s general elections, stressing the fact it will be able to govern alone and enjoy the absolute majority in the new Sejm.

According to latest exit polls, the right wing Law and Justice (PiS) led by Jarosław Kaczyński won Sunday's parliamentary elections in Poland with 37.7 percent of the vote, ahead of the ruling Civic Platform (PO) on 23,6 percent. Other parties set to enter the new parliament (Sejm) include: the anti-establishment Kukiz’15 (8.7 percent) and the liberal and pro-market Nowoczesna (7.7 percent), as well as the Polish Peasants Party (PSL – 5.7 percent). Turnout was 51.6 percent. Official results will be available on Tuesday.

Rzeczpospolita's editor in chief Bogusław Chrabota calls the result obtained by PiS “a heavy knock-out not only for the ruling PO but for the entire political scene” –

After eight years, Donald Tusk’s party leaves the scene bruised, disintegrated, with a clear leadership crisis and schizophrenic identity […] For the first time in 25 years a single party will form the government. For the first time it gets a historic chance to fully implement its programme (without rotten compromises).

Gazeta Wyborczad's eputy editor Jarosław Kurski fears that PiS will be able to muster enough support in the new parliament to change the Constitution – which is its main goal according to the daily – and threaten democracy in Poland. Hence, Kurski urges PiS opponents to “mobilise and realise how serious the situation is”:

We need an alliance of all powers that will defend democracy against the encroachments of the parliamentary majority: [we need] a civic society, independent media and parties to oppose authoritarianism.

The economic daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawnapoints to the fact that there will be no leftwing party (neither the coalition of Zjednoczona Lewica nor Razem got enough votes) in the new parliament:

It is not surprising though as their [the left wing] programme, to large extent, has been adopted by PiS. On the other hand, it’s a pity since balance is recommended everywhere.

For Polska The Timesunsigned editorial it is clear that the results of the elections show that –

Poles wanted change, and a big one, for that matter. A huge responsibility has been vested on Jarosław Kaczyński’s party. He’s got PM, president [Andrzej Duda was a PiS member too] and full power. We’ll see how he is going to cope with this responsibility.

Jarosław Kaczyński (leader of PiS) is “very close to assuming absolute power in Poland”, warns Newsweek Polska on its frontpage while its editor in chief Tomasz Lis wonders why Poles decided to risk so much so that someone could implement such a risky, if not crazy, project. In his view, elections ended with “impressive triumph” for the right wing parties and “a gigantic defeat” for the left. But what’s even worse, on electoral Sunday –

moderation, predictability and pro-European orientation were painfully defeated by radicalism, populism and nationalism.

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